To St. Albert Farmers’ Market organizers, Sandy Busenius is vendor booth No. 69. To the folks who buy her homemade jams, relishes, chutneys and pickled vegetables, she’s the sweet lady who adds zest to their meals.
With the region in full-blown harvest season, it’s the ideal time to stock her Gibbons-based commercial kitchen with the freshest fruits and veggies available. And lately, the self-styled entrepreneur has worked 10-hour days to fill high demand.
For today’s discriminating shopper, preserves are more than just storing up for long winter months. Families with young children have shown an increased awareness in how food is prepared. Busenius believes it’s a reaction to the complex food labelling approved by the government.
“In making jam, all you need is fruit, sugar and pectin that makes it thicken up. It’s as simple as you can get. People just want to read and understand the ingredient list. They want to know what they buy,” said Busenius, founder of Sandy’s Home Made Goodies.
Not only are her food labels easy to read and understand, but she also offers an extensive variety of 50 innovative flavours. Each offers a unique character – a kick of heat, a touch of sweet tartness, something boozy, herbal or spiced.
The jams in particular are tagged with enticing names such as Blueberry Banana Split, Bacon Bourbon, Red Pepper Jelly and Apple Butter (a fruit spread that tastes like apple pie).
After spending 40 years in the petrochemical industry employed in various areas, Busenius started experimenting with jams about 10 years ago quite by accident.
“My husband (Neil) loves to pick berries and he filled a freezer. I couldn’t put anything in it because it was so full. At Christmas I thought I’d make presents for family and friends. I ended up with 267 jars,” laughed Busenius.
At the time, she could not have predicted her jam-making savvy would bloom into a full-fledged business with contacts across the region.
The leftover jars were sold in the region’s smaller markets where the mother of four discovered an untapped demand for foods unavailable in big box supermarkets.
Requests started coming in for local berry jams such as chokecherry and pincherry jam. Eager to satisfy customers, Busenius experimented using a mix of old family recipes, old cookbooks and recipes from the internet.
“I got a lot of requests for the Million Dollar Relish (sweet pickle relish from the Deep South). I picked a recipe from the internet and tweaked it, and it’s been a big seller.”
Honeyberries do not grow east of Saskatchewan. A Manitoba couple strolling through St. Albert Farmers’ Market spotted the jars and had a case shipped home.
Chow chow, another East Coast relish made from green tomatoes, onions and topped with vinegar, sugar and spices, was another request. Sobeys sells chow chow on the East Coast, but not in Western Canada.
“I made a little batch and he (the man who made request) tasted it and said, ‘you nailed it,’” Busenius said.
When she started making preserves, Busenius attempted to cut costs growing vegetables on her husband’s quarter section near Busby.
“We grew vegetables until the deer came snacking and dug up and trampled the garden.”
Today, she buys fruits and vegetables wherever there is a good deal: from local producers, wholesale clubs or H & W Produce.
So far this year, Busenius has prepped 600 pounds of pickling cucumbers and more than 1,000 pounds of fruit. Just this past weekend, her team of five that includes daughter Tanis Baxter, canned 250 pounds of carrots filling 120 jars. And this is only a small sampling of her total workload.
“We have a system. One peels. One cuts the correct length. One cuts it into sticks. One puts it in a jar and one covers it in brine.”
The jars are then processed in boiling water for 10 minutes.
“It heats them just enough, and the vacuum created sucks down the lid and seals them.”
After the summer market season is over, the Busenius’s winter in Yuma, Ariz. But it’s not all relaxation. She collects the prickly pear cactus’ neon fruits and extracts the juice. Some describe the juice as tasting like a cross between classic bubblegum and watermelon.
“I make the juice down there, bring it home and make a glaze. My Jalapeno Prickly Pear Glaze has a mild spice and is good on pork and chicken.”
In addition to selling at St. Albert Farmers’ Market and the Fort Saskatchewan Farmers' Market, she sells her homemade products year-round to four regional butcher shops and is in talks to start supplying two restaurants.
“I’ve been lucky. People come to me. I’m not going out to look for business, but if it comes to me, I will look at it.”
